The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy is hearing rumblings from Novell about potential virtualization news at VMworld, scheduled for Sept. 15-18 in Las Vegas. The news will likely involve bi-directional virtualization efforts with Microsoft, according to our resident blogger. Here’s the scoop.

Move over, Digium. You’re not the only poster child for Asterisk and open source PBXes. Rival Fonality has scored another $12 million in financing from Intel Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson — and some of the money could be earmarked for acquisitions. Impressive, but what does it mean for VARs and solutions providers?

Sure, Windows is expected to run on 1 billion devices by 2010. But a loud minority is making its voice heard by moving to Ubuntu Linux. In fact, Canonical’s marketing materials state that Ubuntu now has more than 8 million users.

Canonical is taking three small but significant steps to build a partner channel for Ubuntu Linux. The VAR Guy stumbled upon the strategy during a surprise visit to Canonical’s offices near Boston. Here’s the scoop.

Novell is losing money in the desktop Linux market, but those desktop deals are driving big wins in the server arena, according to Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon. A case in point: Novell’s desktop Linux relationship with Lenovo — the big PC maker — will extend to servers this September, confirms Dragoon.

Novell expects to name a new channel chief by the end of this week or sometime next week, according to Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon. There’s also some good news on the SUSE Linux front. Here’s the scoop, from The VAR Guy.

The VAR Guy landed in Boston Tuesday night, and will spend Wednesday meeting with Novell and OnForce, among other companies. No taxis. No limos. No rental cars. Instead, our resident blogger will depend on a few trusted local friends to get him around town. He’ll be back later today with a recap of his meetings.

Some small businesses and start-ups are standardizing on Ubuntu Server Edition because it’s a low-cost alternative to Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 and 2008. The VAR Guy wonders: Could a bigger trend be coming? Will hundreds — or thousands — of small businesses make the move to Ubuntu Server Edition?

Alcatel-Lucent is bringing in a new CEO, but The VAR Guy remains highly skeptical of the networking giant for three key reasons.

It’s another small step for consumer Linux, and another giant win for Novell SUSE Linux. The VAR Guy was strolling through his local BJs Wholesale Club over the holiday weekend, when he spotted a Hewlett-Packard 2133 Mini-Note PC (pictured) with Novell SUSE Linux preloaded. Sweet … but not perfect. Here’s why.